UNDP Jobs - 56618- Re-advertisement - Finance and Operations Consulta

Re-advertisement - Finance and Operations Consultant

Location :

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

24-Aug-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Candidates who previously applied need not re-apply.

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has corporate responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the strategic results, outcomes and outputs of with respect to UNDP’s Strategic Plan.

Bureau for Policy and Programme Support its teams and their members provide technical advice to Country Offices; advocate UNDP corporate messages; represent UNDP as required, including at multi-stakeholder fora including in public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogue initiatives, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives; and engage in UN interagency coordination in specific thematic areas.

Bureau for Policy and Programme Support works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

Bureau for Policy and Programme Support is committed to a culture of learning and will work to identify, test and share and institutionalize across UNDP what works, including through effective development cooperation and higher quality UNDP programming.

Duties and Responsibilities

Administration, project budgets, expenditures:

Prepare, revision, and facilitation of approval of UNDP project budgets;Present thoroughly researched information for planning of financial resources, containing analysis of the financial situation;
Administrative and financial management support;
Implementation of control mechanisms for administrative services and maintenance of administrative control records such as commitments and expenditures;
Review, research, and verification of a variety of data and reports for accuracy and conformance with financial and administrative regulations;
Review of travel authorizations, documentations, and payments;
Preparation of budgets, support with audit exercises, and production of other reports including preparing financial reports for EDC/SSC/Innovation donors;
Accounting and administrative support to teams in Development Impact group;
Ensure completeness and accuracy of supporting documents for payments;
Corrective actions on exceptional transactions: un-posted vouchers, including e-reqs, purchase orders, vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, and unapproved vouchers;
Ensure allocation of funds to UNDP Regional Services Centers and Country Offices in regards to financial transfers/allocations, provision of COAs, or other actions as needed to ensure smooth allocation processes.
Support to Procurement processes;
Drafting and facilitating the advertising of Procurement notices on the external UNDP website;
Support to interview processes, including the scheduling of interviews; the writing of evaluation reports; and the sourcing of relevant financial quotes;
Preparation of submission to review commitees and procurement documents and delivery to Procurement unit in BPPS;
Liaise with the appropriate procurement colleagues in obtaining necessary clearances, as well as preparing draft CAP and ACP submissions as needed;
Prepares draft (standard) contractual documents for the procurement of equipment/services in accordance with established procedures, for the Unit;
Provide administrative assistance with initiation of project level procurement activities (small purchases, printing, editing and design services);
Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing;
Organization of training for the operations/program/projects staff on financial and project management;
Synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices in financial management;
Assist in keeping documents of the cluster up to date and in order;
Assist in maintaining and updating a full inventory of MOUs, consultants, service contracts;
and ensures monitoring of compliance with corporate approvals by CAP/ACP/CPO;
Create electronic folders on project documents, correspondence, reports and other materials;
For each of the above categories;
Keep the files for the related activities (procurement, travel, payments) up to date and in order.

Competencies

Functional

Strong organizational and research skills;
Excellent analytical, communication, interpersonal, and writing skills;
Experience working collaboratively in a team structure in a multicultural environment;
Respect for diversity; understanding of the United Nations system, operations, and structures, particularly those related to capacity development and/or post-conflict contexts;
Ability to work under minimum supervision and tight deadlines.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrate integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP's values and ethical standards;
Promote the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN/UNDP;
Display sensitivity and adaptability when working with a diverse array of cultures, genders, religions, races, nationalities, and ages.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Secondary Education;
Possession of a specialized certification in Accounting and Finance is a great asset;
University Degree in Finance, Business or Public Administration desirable, but it is not a requirement;
Part-qualified accountants from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage.

Experience:

Minimum of 3 years of progressively responsible finance and accounting experience is required;
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages such as MS Word, Excel or other relevant programs); advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages is required;
Experience in PeopleSoft /ATLAS Finance, Travel and Programme Management Module is required.

Language:

Fluency in English is required.

Selection Process

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Application Procedures and Presentation of Offer

The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications:

Step 1: Interested individual consultants shall submit their application through UNDP job shop and include:

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, indicating available start date;
CV /Personal History Form (P11), (the P11 template can be downloaded from this link; http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc
Please note that a Personal History Form (P11) will be required if the candidate is shortlisted.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal

Following the technical evaluation, only applicants meeting all minimum requirements and obtaining a minimum of 70% on technical evaluation will be approached for submission of financial proposals and considered for the Financial Evaluation

Financial proposals must be all-inclusive and must be expressed on the basis of a daily fee in United States Dollar (USD). The term ‘all inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel related expenses - i.e. if required by applicant, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the daily fee.

Payments:

Payment will be made upon monthly submission of a certificate of payment request, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Only those candidates who meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation.

The technical evaluation will include a desk review and may also include interviews with shortlisted candidates.

The following evaluation criteria will be used for the desk reviews/or interviews:

Possessing relevant education, with specialized certification in Accounting and Finance (10);
Experience and knowledge of programme resources and budgets management, financial data analysis (allocations and expenditures) and travel authorization in PeopleSoft ERP/ATLAS Finance and Programme Management Module; (30 points);
Relevant experience in providing project level general administrative support (10 points);
Relevant experience in processing procurement actions (20 points).

If interviews are also conducted, evaluation criteria will be based on the competencies and qualifications requirements in this Terms of Reference.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% on technical evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation;

For the financial evaluation (30% of total obtainable scores) the following formula will be used:

p = y (µ/z),

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

The selection of the best offer from the shortlisted candidates will be based on a Combined Scoring method – where the technical evaluation (desk review and interview) will be weighted a maximum of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30%. Contract will be awarded to the applicant with the highest cumulative score.

This consultancy is based in New York and is open only to candidates who are either US Permanent Residents, US Citizens or holders of a valid G4 visa at the time of their application and whose G4 visa has been acquired on account of their employment in the UN Systems based in New York.

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.